There are some interesting roundish features on some of the bedrock slabs in the latest images (sols 121-123). Little "depressions" with raised edges, like bubbles popped or something. Being discussed on the other forum too...

Here are links to some of the more prominent ones (the first one is more oblong with smaller ones near it, and the last one is between two bedrock slabs, beside a dark patch):

re 328..330, looks to me like a miniature version of features like this in the Cerberus quadrangle of Mars:

Most say this is related to steam caused by melting/boiling permafrost overrun by lava flows...

kevin

Posts: xxx

Reply: 332

Posted: December 11, 2012 5:30 AM

Damn it there are problems with the Drill the fault was spotted before launch but there was not enough time to sort out the problem. Some measures were put in place that should mean it will work for 2 years but who knows, the biggest danger though is when it does go it could short out the entire circuits of the Rover. NASA say they have put some extra wiring in to take this jolt and stop it going into the main power source for Curiosity. Drilling is about to start once the target rocks have been selected. I sincerely hope the twin rover planned for 2020 carries a bigger drill 2.5cm is not enough 2.5m would be about right!

There are litterally thousands of interesting sites on mars. The need for a much more powerful telescope/camera in a orbiting satilite is in order. Deciding where to land the next rover is necessarry. Or some sort of flying machine that can fly accross the surface taking pictures of all these anomolies is needed also. I wonder how a Fighter jet would work in the thin atmosphere. Hey I have a idea,, a jumping machine. It would not need atmosphere to cover long distances, just jump and take pictures

John Henry Dough

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Reply: 334

Posted: December 11, 2012 7:47 PM

2.5m would be about right!

THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN BITCHING ABOUT!!!!

Who the h*** wants to drill a frigging
ROCK??????????
Why not just run over it till it cracks?
(uh,,,No,,that will kill the wheels quicker)

It is the SOIL we wish to drill into!!!

Why couldn't a meter long or as Kevin says
2.5 meter long fence post hollow auger been
included?? Made from lightweight very strong material ,,,hollow ..in order to collect the sample.
Good Grief !!
UNDER the Surface not ON the surface!!!!!!!
Oh Well ,,,,Hindsight is nearly always 20/20

John

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Reply: 335

Posted: December 12, 2012 1:27 AM

Why do we NEED a drill?

Kye Goodwin

Posts: 1166

Reply: 336

Posted: December 12, 2012 2:10 AM

Paul Scott Anderson, re your replies 28 to 30, Thanks for posting those images of the roundish thingees. I thought I was paying attention but completely missed this new addition to the Mars menagerie. The first question that comes to my mind is did these roundish features originate before or after erosion created the present surface at Glenelg. Are they integral to the rock or have they been added to the eroded surface? They seem to all be in the same relationship to the present surface with an oval rampart protruding above the surface. If they are integral to the rock we should see other examples where the "bubbles" are exposed and eroded to different degrees.

I think that this is the first example at Gale of what I've been calling "sharp little trenches", lower right between an outcrop and the soil in a fissure:

These are locally common at craters at Meridiani, for example bottom center:

And we also saw a few similar structures at Gusev, for example top center:

Whatever process causes these little trenches to form in soil it seems to be widespread.

kevin

Posts: xxx

Reply: 337

Posted: December 12, 2012 4:35 AM

JCC absolutely right the Trace Gas Orbiter will look for the source of the Methane and pave the way for ESA's ExoMars and help select a landing site for it, I am sure it can do some good work for NASA too. Getting as close to a Polar region would be very interesting as I am sure there will be some life detection equipment on board this Rover and possibly there might be frozen microbes in the permafrost a la Antartica.

There is an interesting hollow ball towards the top middle of the pan.

Also, some strange raised linear features and holes on the rock end in the lower left.

John Henry Dough

Posts: xxx

Reply: 339

Posted: December 12, 2012 8:54 PM

We NEED a drill to tell us what is subsurface,
changes in the sun baked surface at one foot deep ,,two foot deep etc.
We know NOTHING about what is underneath the rover wheels.

It could mean a lot.
Really.

Barsoomer

Posts: 344

Reply: 340

Posted: December 12, 2012 11:08 PM

Nice image, Horton. That looks like some strange stuff over the rock.

For subsurface exploration, what we need is an extremely fresh crater, preferably one that impacted into subsurface ice. One possibility is to create the crater ourselves with our own impactor, and then follow up with ground exploration by a rover.